#2184 travel Tuesday: at the top of the Tiger Cave climb

Welcome back! I'm in my regular rotation of topics again. Tuesday is for travel, even though I spent all of last month writing about travel. One more can't hurt, right?

There was a question (from Lizzie) in the comments about the Tiger Cave post. She wondered what it was like at the top and if there was reverence for the Buddha statues. The quick answer is yes. People were mellow up at the top. Whether the mellowness came from being exhausted by that climb or for reverence for the Buddha statues themselves, I'm not sure.

An interesting thing about visiting a Buddhist temple is that modesty is requested. All the guidebooks tell you to cover your shoulders and knees. At both Angkor Wat and the Tiger Cave, most people were dressed respectfully. Women could purchase sarongs to cover themselves. I did see some people who wore tank tops and shorts, but they were outnumbered by others in t-shirts and capris. Up at the top of the Tiger Cave climb, there were shelves and there was a sign requesting people to remove their shoes. I think everyone did that. While I was at the top, I think there were maybe twenty people or so, but the area is large and was not crowded. When I had seen all I wanted and was ready to go back down, I was surprised by the number of people in the lower, shaded section of the Buddha area. I guess they were all catching their breaths and resting before going up the final few steps to actually see the Buddha statue. What was kind of surprising to me was that at the top of Tiger Cave there was no authority figure, no monks or anything keeping people kind of in line, so to speak. Same thing at Angkor Wat. There were lots of guides and there were monks around, but mostly they were just doing their own thing. People were generally well-mannered.

One thing MT and I really liked about both Cambodia and Thailand was the politeness and courtesy we encountered. It is a custom there to put your hands together about chest high and slightly bow when you greet someone. It is called the "wai". What we found so lovely about it was that you actually had to pause for a moment to put your hands together and look at the person you are greeting. It seems here we often just casually wave or say "hey" and go on. The wai just seemed friendlier and more mindful, I guess.

That's all I've got for tonight! Have a good one!